Many people use prepaid telephone calling cards as an easy and reliable way to make long distance telephone calls from any telephone. People appreciate the convenience of the cards as well as the benefit of knowing beforehand how much a call will cost per minute. Another benefit of prepaid cards is that because the cards have a defined limit (e.g., typically in terms of minutes or dollars), people know that in the case of theft, the resulting loss to the person is readily discernible and limited to the remaining balance on the prepaid card.
One drawback to prepaid cards is that each card is treated like a separate account from the perspective of the prepaid card provider. As such, people who wish to provide multiple people with cards must purchase separate cards and track each card's usage separately. Since prepaid cards providers do not provide call detail records, it is not possible to discern any information about the prepaid card user other than the fact that the minutes have been depleted. Typically, the current solution has been to provide traditional calling cards to those people. However, there are a number of disadvantages to traditional calling cards.
One disadvantage is that the typical per minute charge for calling cards is significantly higher than the per minute charge for prepaid cards. A second disadvantage is that the calling card usually has no preset limit either in terms of dollars or minutes. As such, if someone abuses the privilege of having the card or the card is stolen, significant charges can be made to the card. Finally, using a calling card presupposes a long-term commitment that results in monthly or periodic billings. Again, the costs attributable to the calling cards are unknown and not easily controlled. There is a need for multiple prepaid cards that can be associated with a single account and can be used simultaneously.